Bequia and St. Vincent

Bequia is the largest island in the SVG after St. Vincent and a big change from our previous destinations. There appears to be a lot of money here, big fancy homes and more sophisticated restaurants and shops. Admiralty Bay is huge and lined with restaurants, beaches and lovely pastel houses. There is even a good sized Book Shop, but still no real supermarkets.

The fresh veggie market is fun and there are some nice bakeries, but the general merchandise is scanty. It's also filled with big handsome boats (oh wait, that really nice one here is ours). We anchored off Princess Margaret Beach (she used to spend a lot of time here) and Scott went in to complete the easy check out. This is our third or fourth time here and we've always enjoyed it.

See our previous entry in April, 2007 describing a visit to the Moonhole Community designed and built by the late Tom Johnson, a well known American architect.
But until now we hadn't walked over to the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary out in Industry (that's the name of the community) so the next morning we headed off. This organization was founded by Orton "Brother" King, a retired native fisherman who has dedicated his life to saving the hawksbill turtles. His organization monitors beaches, checks nests, tries to protect mother turtles and eggs from poachers, collects hatchlings, and rears them until they are around 3 years old. Local youth education is part of their mission.

We should have started earlier because it was a hot trip over the hills and down to the waterfront sanctuary, but very pretty. We passed the bustling high school with hundreds of uniformed handsome teenagers. Away from the waterfront and the hill crests with views, this is a more rural peaceful place. We passed through Spring, the site of several beautiful plantations, now expensive hotels.
There are still some livestock roaming the manicured palm tree pastures lining the beach. We walked through one of them to the reef surrounded bay on the windward side. Several fishing boats testified to the local's ability to make their way through. That's a view of the bay from a bluff and one of the fishing boats with their nets neatly drying.

We had a tour of the facility and were able to get to know the turtles up close and personal. Scott petted several of the big ones and they obviously enjoyed it. These are permenant residents, many with lost flippers. The baby ones are really fun to watch - they really interact with each other.

There are no public buses or jitneys on the island and the taxis are expensive, so we decided to walk back. It was noon so as we walked up the hill, I believe I must have looked tired, as two women in a taxi picked us up for free!
One place we didn't get to visit is to the home of the late Athneal Ollivierre, the island's head whale harpooner, where there is a small

whaling museum. Bequia has an active whaling station and by IWC agreement can take up to 4 whales a year, although I believe they rarely get that many, sometimes none. It's done in an open sailing boat using hand thrown harpoons!

The next day after checking out with Customs & Immigration, we walked around Port Elizabeth, the main village, late in the afternoon checking out the happy hours, comparing rum punches both for quality and price. An excellent fruity one with lots of rum costs 5 or 6 EC at happy hour, about $2 to $2.50. The narrow road along the water has a pretty flower divider separating the directions, but it stops quickly. Then a cement pathway continues along the shore in front of the bars and restaurants. People stroll along this watching the action on shore and off. This proud Bequian father was showing off his baby boy. He loved our drink straw!


While watching the sunset there we met a charming couple from the U.S., Joe and Mary Lee. They were on their last day of a one week charter and after some conversation we all adjourned to our boat for a last minute put together dinner. One unexpected difficulty was finding their boat - hundreds of them and it was very dark! But it was a fun ending for the day.

The next morning however we didn't feel up to the dawn departure so we changed the schedule. Instead of the long trip directly to the Pitons in St. Lucia we decided to spend the night at Wallilabou Anchorage in St. Vincent, only about 3 hours away. A separate posting will talk about this event.

Bequia and Carriacou

Secured safely to our mooring between the Pitons on St. Lucia, after a good dinner and "Happy Feet" on our DVD player, we had a rolly night. Heather was up early at 5:30 restless and got the coffee and the boat ready for an early departure. It was dead calm at first but storm cells were visable around us. Big ships cross this passage regularly so we turned on our radar. Once in the dense rain we can't see far away. St. Vincent was cloud draped and misty. It's steep green hills have few houses but lots of fields clinging impossibly to the slopes. Word is a lot of ganja is produced in this northern section. We passed by and continued on to the big harbor of Admiralty Bay, Bequia. Rain storms continued all day and that night we were treated to several beautiful rainbows (sorry this picture doesn't begin to do it justice).
It was great to swim and relax in the water when the sun came out late in the afternoon and when it went down we saluted it with sundowners in the cockpit. Early again the next morning we were on our way to Carriacou. We were Q flagging it. We checked out of St. Lucia for Carriacou and didn't check into St. Vincent and the Grenadines, another country. We flew the yellow quarantee flag meanwhile. Once in Carriacou we anchored off the main town, Hillsborough, and Scott went into town to check in with Customs and Immigration. This is necessary in every country you visit, unless you're just passing through. Once that process was complete we sailed around the island to a cruiser favorite harbor - Tyrell Bay. There three other boats awaited us: "Sutton Hoo" and "M'Lady Kathleen" and "Gypsy Palace". Jo and Geoff on "Sutton Hoo" have been friends since the Annapolis GAM two and one half years ago. Winter before last they came and visited us in Vermont for a ski vacation. We then saw them in Trinidad and it was great catching up with them here. We had drinks with them on "M"Lady Kathleen" that night. We also met Roland and Kathleen at an Annapolis GAM, but October 2005 instead. They met up with "Nereia and "Casa del Mar" in the Turks and Caicos and traveled together till we saw them all again in Dominica. They were with us in Trinidad. One day we walked over to Paradise Beach and had lunch there and another day the three ladies went into Hillsborough to shop and have lunch (photo of Kathleen and Jo). Another picture here shows the narrow walkways between the buildings that lead down to the beach.

Our friends Lorie and Dale aboard "Gypsy Palace" are also old friends. We met in St. Augustine and sailed with them to Ft. Pierce. Later we saw them several times in Prickley Bay and in Trinidad. Now we hope to join them and their friends "Orpalleur" on the trip west to Los Testigos. We start out ahead of them by leaving for Grenada tonight but they'll catch up with us there in a few days. Orpalleur is up on the hard having their bottom painted. Or at least it was supposed to be done for them - the yard wasn't doing their end of the process in any timely fashion and when we saw Jerry today, he was blue from painting the bottom himself.

James' Visit - Thanksgiving and a visit to a Pirate Lair

This was the first Thanksgiving we had on the boat but it couldn't be other than traditional for me. So we had a whole small turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash, cranberry sauce, salad, and apple pie - all made with two burners and a small oven (our generator is on the blitz, which means no microwave). I believe the turkey was the last one in any of the islands. All of our other friends here went out to dinner but I've never been to a restaurant for Thanksgiving (yet). It was a rainy stormy day so we sat around the boat, playing cards, backgammon and dominos. James and I particularly had running games for two weeks of gin and canasta.

We had forgotten to check out of customs that day and so had to wait to leave until after they opened the next morning. With that late start we decided to stop in St. Vincent for the night. This is a beautiful island but has a bad reputation for theft. With it's steep and wild terrain, it was one of the last to be settled by Europeans. The Caribs (called so by Columbus) were in residence when a slave ship wrecked off the coast. They attempted to subjugate them and managed for a time but they revolted and took Carib women with them and formed a colony, calling themselves the Black Carib. They put up a fierce resistance to British settlement. Finally, in the late 18th century, they were defeated and shipped en masse to Honduras. There are a lot of terrible deeds done in these islands for sure.

Natural Arch off Wallilabou Bay, St. Vincent

As soon as you approach, island men in very small row boats come out to "help" you anchor. These "boat boys" are only trying to make a living but they've put off many cruisers from coming. We refused assistance until we were close to the moorings and realized we needed help with our stern line. So we chose Sean. The anchorage area is small and everyone wants to be close to each other and the restaurant for security purposes, so you take a mooring and then have a stern line tied to either another mooring or the shore.
The harbor of Wallilabou has much more recently been famous as the principal location for "Pirates of the Caribbean". Much of the stage set is still intact and the restaurant was remodeled for the movie as well. We had a lovely lunch there under the Styrofoam and plywood arches, painted to look like stone. After we had sat down our (boat boy not our youngest son) Sean came to our table and asked to borrow our dinghy to bring the police out to the large catamaran near us. Their dinghy motor had been stolen the night before. Needless to say we locked everything down tight that evening. We have dinghy davits and can bring our dinghy up each night and tie it down well.

Restaurant and pirate lair at Walliliabou Bay

Before that though we motored out to the natural arch at the end of the bay and snorkeled around the rocks. There was a wide variety of fish and colored vegetation. Early the next morning, 6:30AM, we took off for St. Lucia and as there was very little wind, motorsailed the whole way - 55 miles. Luckily we had a very positive current with us and pulled into the Rodney Bay Marina by 3:30PM. It was James' birthday and after perusing the guide book, he decided on "Razzamatz" for dinner. This was a terrific traditional Indian restaurant and they sang a rousing Happy Birthday afterwards.

James' Visit - Moonhole

From Union we went directly to Bequia. There were a lot of islands in between, the wind was up and it was a lovely sail. We had originally planned to spend time in the Tobago Cays - a group of small deserted islands protected by Horseshoe Reef. But the constant strong sun had taken its' toll on James. As a red head and very fair he's always had a problem but living on the boat made it more difficult: he had a bad case of sun poisoning. So we decided to head to a larger island and do more sightseeing. Bequia like many of these islands has a seafaring, fishing and boat building population but one thing is unique. The island has an active whaling station and by IWC agreement, local whalers can take four whales a year, although in some years they don't get any. Few people are left with the skills necessary to hunt them - a daring feat in an open sailing boat, using hand thrown harpoons. The Japanese have been active in all the Carribean islands building parks, schools etc. looking for support for their whaling interests.
We anchored in Admiralty Bay off Princess Margaret Beach (a famous visitor). On the way there we passed the homes at Moonhole and were very curious. Luckily friends had arranged a tour and we were able to join them. We traveled in two jeepneys, first on paved roads and then on a barely passable dirt path.

No - we're not on safari in Africa!

When the late American architect Tom Johnson built the first home here in 1963 under the Moonhole arch, there was no road and or good anchorage. His home grows out of the rocks without straight lines or right angles. All the homes have huge arches, fantastic views, lovely patios, and most windows are open to the elements. They are not connected to the electric lines but some homes have solar panels or wind generators.
Tom's son and his wife, Jim and Sheena Johnson, live there today and showed us around their home and the original house, now abandoned. A huge boulder fell from the arch and landed in one of the beds. Fortunately no one was there at the time. The home reminded us of the Ancient Pueblo Indian dwellings we saw at Mesa Verde, especially from the sea. Built in a series of levels with single rooms and terraces, their favorite spot was a pyramid roof under which still sits their deck chairs facing the sea.

There was quite a crowd of us on the tour

We finished the tour at the Johnson's bar with some of her famous rum punches. They have three pet turtles that roam around. They love to scratch their backs on whomever sits in the hammock. Many of us gave it a try. We wished we had a chance to see some of the other homes, but most were rented or their owners were in residence. Their are 18 in all and have the whole peninsula to themselves.

In this shot it looks like the turtle is holding someone up!

The steep path led along the cliffs and past many of
the house.

The original moon hole home under the arch with the pyramid topped
meditation space

Martinique to Bequia

Scott and I left Anse Mitan, Martinique at 5 AM, before the sunrise but with good light. Our friends on "Que Rico" had overslept (seen here the night before!) so we circled them and beeped the horn until they appeared. With the music and fireworks going till 4 am ashore, no one got a good night, but it wasn't long before we saw their sails behind us. It was calm until we left the lee of the island and entered the channel. We had 15 - 20 knots of wind and 5 - 8 foot swells both from the east. This wasn't that bad as we were on a beam reach, a very comfortable point of sail, and the swells were far enough apart and regular so our boat mainly rose and fell with the waves - altogether a nice brisk sail - and a short one as we tied up to the marina at 10:15 AM.

The Rodney Bay Marina in St. Lucia is a very inexpensive but nice place to spend some time. A colorful flag draped boat cruises the harbor each morning with fresh vegetables and fruits - very convienent! A tropical wave was coming through the next few days bringing gusty winds and rain (we clocked 38 knots max during it) and it was nice to be tied up to a dock. It had a pool which we used everyday, several nice restaurants, a good book exchange, and a laundry service. Do it yourself laundries haven't existed since the U.S. Virgin Islands. We drop off our laundry and get it back all folded, for a mostly reasonable price - about $8 a load.

There were a lot of boats here that we knew, including "Lioness III", another boat we left Georgetown with and hadn't seen since April 4. We had a big pot luck at the pool one night and exchanged visits with another Nauticat 43 "Woodfield II" John and Dee King from England - a delightful couple that gave us lots of information and advice about the countries ahead of us. They've been in the Caribbean for 17 years and were headed back to the Med this summer.

After two nights at the Marina we left at 10:15 AM for an easy sail down to Soufriere Town in the south of St. Lucia.

We picked up moorings off the beach in the shadow of Petit Piton, one of two dramatic towering thin mountains that rise up directly from the sea here, both around 2500 feet. We had a lovely early dinner and wine sitting in our cockpit with the wonderful view and sunset. We went right to bed afterwards because at 3 AM all five boats dropped our moorings and headed out to sea, the still visibly looming pitons against the stars. It was windy and rough again in the channel but the boat handled so well, under reefed sails but averaging over 7 knots -
very exhilarating. We had to turn the motor on for a while in the lee of St. Vincent as the wind alternated between howling through the mountain passes and dead calm when directly behind them. By this time it was light out and we enjoyed the beautiful green coast of the island. Next fall we will stop there and see it but now we have to make tracks. Once into the next channel the waves were wild again but the wind steadier. We had been warned to take our sails down before entering Admiralty Bay in Bequia gusts of wind up to 38 knots hit us as we rounded Devil's Table.

Due to this, we spent a bit of time anchoring and made sure we were well dug in. This lovely big bay is surrounded by white beaches and a charming red roofed town, Port Elizabeth (view from the town). We were off Princess
Margaret Beach among many boats. This is a popular spot for cruisers. We found our friends Luis and Natalia from "Vagamundo" here and spent the next day with them. We had breakfast at a small cafe and then walked up to the fort for a beautiful view followed by an exploration of the town. Several craft artists have studios and shops here. One makes beautiful boat models, shown here. Our friends from "Dreamtime" arrived and came over for the evening. We won't see these two boats and "Diesel Duck" until we return in August to Trinidad because we need to make tracks south. We have plane reservations home in late June from Trinidad.